_Richard III._ (Vol. iii., pp. 206-7.).--The statement by MR. HARRISON,
that Richard was not a "hunchback," is curiously "backed" by an ingenious
conjecture of that very remarkable man, Doctor John Wallis of Oxford, in
his _Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae_, first published in 1653. The passage
occurs in the 2d section of chapter 14, "De Etymologia." Wallis is treating
of the words _crook_, _crouch_, _cross_, &c., and says:
"Hinc item _croisado_ de militibus dicebatur ad bellum (quod vocant)
sanctum conscriptis (pro recuperanda terra sancta) qui a tergo
gestabant formam Crucis; et _Richardus_ olim Rex Angliae dicebatur
_crouch-backed_, non quod dorso fucrit incurvato, sed quod a tergo
gestare gestiebat formam Crucis."